AHMEDABAD: In April, a dalit family of Tajpur village of Sabarkantha district, 100 km from Ahmedabad, was targeted by other communities when it tried to take out a marriage procession. Despite police bandobast, the procession was attacked and stoned. "When it came to filing complaints, the local police sided with the upper castes," said dalit activist Sanjay Parmar.

Parmar was highlighting the plight of people belonging to scheduled castes at a two-day open house session of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). The public hearing began on Monday at the Gandhi Labour Institute (GLI). On Tuesday, the NHRC team will meet the state chief secretary.

"Gujarat could be a model state in this regard. We have begun the hearing session from here," NHRC chairperson justice (retired) K G Balakrishnan said, while inaugurating the session. The former chief justice of India (CJI), Balakrishnan, is accompanied by NHRC member justice (retired) BC Patel and other officers of the commission.

The NHRC began its "open hearing" session on issues related to alleged atrocities against scheduled caste people and problems faced by them in seeking justice. Dalits converged from different parts of Gujarat to narrate their tales of woes before NHRC.

Several complaints of non-cooperation of police in filing complaints, inaction of government authorities, lack of rehabilitation, among others poured in the first session of the hearing here.

Suresh Jadav, a government officer who stays in Kundla village near Sanand, told the NHRC how he faced social boycott after a temple was built in his village in 2009.

"All villagers donated for the temple and we were quite happy that the upper caste communities also sought our help in the matter. However, when the temple was built on land owned by the village panchayat, and I went to offer my puja, I was not allowed to enter. When I went to file a complaint, the police turned me away by saying that I should get an eyewitness to prove that I had not been allowed to enter the temple.

"When police filed a complaint after being pressured, I faced social boycott. I had to shift from there to Sanand. But my aged parents stay in the village, we own some land there but nobody gives water for tilling our fields," said Jadav.

Kirit Rathod, representing Navsarjan - of a voluntary organization, pointed out that according to the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, a state-level committee to supervise issues concerning the communities should meet twice every year. "However, since 1995 the committee has met only six times. To deal with atrocity cases, a special court and a special public prosecutor should be there in every state, but the state government says that it does not have any money for this,'' he said.

Rathod added that Navsarjan has conducted a survey in 1,589 villages. Of these 98 per cent of the villages still are hounded by untouchability. When this report was submitted to the state government, a re-survey was ordered in these villages and CEPT University was given the job for Rs 45 lakh. CEPT officials have submitted their report. "But the state government has not told us about the contents of this report till date," he said.

Complainants utter police apathy

Most of the people who came to narrate their troubles had an axe to grind against the police. Most of them said that police did not take their complaints. The complainants claimed that the cops often use abusive and derogatory language against them and conduct the inquiry in a manner which helps the accused to go scot free. A suspended deputy superintendent of police, SK Makwan, told the retired judges that he was posted as DSP (atrocity) in Banaskantha district in 2006. "I conducted inquiries into more than 1,000 cases of atrocities. In most of the cases, the senior officers pressured me and prevented me from doing my duty or catch the accused," he said. The NHRC asked Makwan to submit his statements in writing.

Non-dalit 'exposes' cops' story

Dinesh Bhanushali, a Jamnagar resident, came up to speak before the NHRC team with his 12-year-old granddaughter. He claimed that his son had been killed in a fake encounter by police in 2006. He claimed that the police story was fake - his son did not know how to drive any vehicle, but the cops claimed that he was gunned down while driving a car. NHRC officers pointed out that he was not a dalit and his case could not be heard by this forum. Bhanushali said: "I have no money for food and had to borrow money for bus fare to reach here. Consider me a dalit too."

Guj a model state for SC welfare: Ex-CJI

Ahmedabad: Chairman of NHRC, Justice KG Balakrishnan, began the two-day 'open hearing' session in the state by praising Gujarat in effectively dealing with issues faced by SC community.

Balakrishnan said that the future of the SC community "seems to be fairly good in Gujarat as compared to many other states". "There are so many innovative schemes being implemented by the state. The state schemes are working well. This is the state in which penetration of education of SC and ST communities has reached 70 per cent," he said.

"Gujarat could be the first model state in this regard. That is why, we have begun the hearing session from here," Balakrishnan said.

The NHRC delegation also comprises Justice B C Patel, registrar (Law) A K Garg, director general of investigation Sunil Krishna and some other senior officers of the commission.

"The purpose of conducting open hearings was to give the SC community members a chance to come and speak out fearlessly. We shall convey their views to the district collectors, police officials, labour department, justice department so that, they can suggest remedies to their problems," he said.

NHRC has decided to hold such open hearings in various states to reach out to dalits and hear their complaints about violations of their rights by the public authorities as part of the recommendations given by K B Saxena, IAS (retired) in his report to NHRC.

The commission has adopted 2012-13 as the year for implementation of Saxena Committeereport.

"We shall be conducting such open hearing sessions in various states of the country. After two weeks, we shall be going to North Eastern states like Assam; we plan to go to West Bengal, conduct a open hearing in Chhattisgarh," Balakrishnan said.

Argument on drains leads to tussle, arrest; Dalits accused of making false complaints

Six persons were injured and several other arrested in a clash between Dalits and members of other communities at Shanubhoganahalli on Sunday night.

An allegation that Shankarappa, a Dalit, prevented flow of drainage, led to the clash.

In a follow up of the clash, members of Dalit organisations staged a protest outside the office of the Deputy Superintendent of Police, demanding that the arrested, who have been held on charges of attack on Dalits, be handed over to judicial custody immediately.

The protesters also had an argument with DySP H P Rajanna and T R Jaishankar, the rural police station Circle Inspector.

Members of other communities in Shanubhoganahalli too staged a protest outside the office of the District Superintendent of Police on Monday, alleging that they were being wrongly accused repeatedly of attacking Dalits.

History The fight of April 30 as well as May 11 and 12 goes back to an argument regarding blocking of drain and also parking vehicles outside a temple. Caste abuse cases were booked against several people on the occasions.

On Monday too, both the groups visited the police station to book cases against each other. The police, however, accepted the complaint of the Dalits, but refused the members of the other communities. They promised to look into the matter on Tuesday morning.

AttackLater, while the Dalit group was travelling by bus on the Kolar-Manighatta route, members of other communities stopped the vehicle and attacked the Dalits.

Shivashankar, Manjunath, Mohan, Rajashekhar, Nanjunda Gowda, Chalapathi and others were held after Shankarappa's son Gautham complained.

FuryLocal Dalit leaders said police continue to ignore the clashes between Dalits and members of other communities and have not organised a pacifying meet. The tahsildar too has not looked into the matter of the drain blockade. If such circumstances continue, Dalits are forced to move out of Shanubhoganahalli, they added.

Mangalore: Dalit leaders on Sunday complained about the alleged reluctance of police in filing cases against saffron cadres, who carry out attack in the name of moral policing, during a grievance meet convened by superintendent of police Abhishek Goyal here.

Guruvappa, a dalit leader from Kadaba in Puttur taluk, alleged that assistant sub inspector of Kadaba police Rukmayya Gowda threatened dalit community members when they visited the police station to lodge a complaint against a member of an upper caste community.

In a first-of-its-kind hearing by National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Monday, 27 of the 30 complaints that were addressed to the commission spoke of indifference of police officials towards dalits.

These issues were raised immediately after NHRC chairman KG Balakrishnan praised status of scheduled castes (SC) in Gujarat. He said the state's schemes for development of the marginalised are working well and penetration of education among scheduled caste and scheduled tribes has reached 70%.

Almost all dalits and their leaders present in the audience were not in agreement with this statement.

Lalji Makwana from Bhavnagar narrated his tale to the NHRC panel of how he was unnecessarily harassed by cops only because he had filed an RTI seeking information against local authorities. Meenaben Makwana from Rajula taluka complained of indifference of police officials towards murder of her husband at the hands of people of the higher castes.

Cops of Ahmedabad rural also came under fire after dalits from Sanand complained of forced migration and social boycott in Goraj and Rethal villages. Dalit community leader from Sanand, Babu Vaniya, said that he was wrongly accused in a criminal case because he had led dalits in his village to raise their voice against murder of a community member.

Member of the NHRC panel, Justice BC Patel, heard all these complaints and said, "We have received written complaints (from all complainants). We will ask government departments to clarify allegations leveled against them," said Patel.

The plight of sewage workers and safai kamdars in the city and across the state figured at the top of the priority list of Non Government Organisations (NGOs) who voiced their grievances and opinion at the open forum organised by National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Monday.

HP Mishra of Kamdar Swasthya Suraksha Mandal said that many sewage workers have died on duty but most states lack data to validate the same."I have written to NHRC several times in the matter but there has been no response," said Mishra. Despite court orders and government regulations to ensure safety of sewage workers, Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) has washed its hands off the responsibility by allocating the cleaning work to private contractors, he added.

"There is need to bring these workers under the Employee State Insurance (ESI) scheme," said Mishra.

Another activist Purshottam Vaghela, who is fighting for the rights of safai kamdars in Gujarat, said that the state has seen death of 167 sewage workers in last 10 years. "Yet the practice of forcing men into manholes to clean clogged drains continue," said Vaghela.Kirit Rathore talked of the practice of manual scavenging and how sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) too has failed to investigate the matter, despite several complaints.

Apart from safai kamdars, abuse of rights of Dalits was the other major discussion at the open forum.

Dalit activist Rajesh Solanki accused social welfare department of the state of turning a blind eye to problems of the marginalised. "Fakir Vaghela (minister of social justice and empowerment) also has requested the NCPCR to postpone its hearing in Gujarat as it would expose the situation here," alleged Solanki.

Rathore further spoke of how there were no cooks for midday meal scheme in Gujarat. "In several villages members of the higher castes refused appointment of Dalits as cooks for the midday meal scheme," he said. NHRC members have written down the complaints of all those concerned and promised to look into the matter.

The Delhi government on Monday decided to set up a residential school for SC, ST, OBC and minorities' students to provide them adequate opportunities to excel in studies.The Delhi Cabinet in a meeting on Monday also approved the victim compensation scheme and prescribed the minimum and maximum limits of the compensation.

he residential school for SC, ST, OBC and minority students will be built in Ishapur area. The city government will sign an agreement to this effect with the Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS), Bhubhaneswar. KISS is running the biggest residential institute for tribal children in South Asia where 10,000 tribal children are provided residential facility and education from the kindergarten to post-graduation level.

Officials said an agreement between the Delhi government and KISS would be signed soon. Chief minister Sheila Dikshit had visited KISS last year and felt a similar school should be opened in Delhi.

"After visiting the institute, it was felt that the experiment could be replicated in Delhi in order to bring SC/ST/OBC/minorities students at par with other students by providing holistic quality education. Experienced teachers from KISS would impart education in an innovative manner.

he school will be managed by the KISS. An existing school premises at Ishapur would be renovated by the public works department as per the specifications provided by KISS," said a Delhi government official.

he city government will provide infrastructure and financial assistance for running the school for five years and after that the school is expected to be self-sustaining.

Haryana Government has decided to start online or electronic transfer of scholarship under Post Matric Scholarship scheme directly into the bank accounts of students belonging to Scheduled Castes, studying in Technical Education institutions with effect from academic year 2012-13.

State Technical Education Minister Mahendra Partap Singh said that the new system would help in timely disbursement of funds to the beneficiaries. Two new disbursing centres have been started for timely disbursement of financial assistance under the scheme with effect from 2012-13, he added.

He said that these centres would be functional at Government polytechnic, Manesar and Narwana while nine disbursing centres were already functional in the State.

The Minister further stated that, to expedite the disbursal of scholarship, now every year, last date for submission of claims applications and result or attendance of pervious semester by the technical institutions concerned for odd semesters should be November 15 except in case of first semester and last date for disbursement would be January 31.

Similarly, in case of an even semester, last date to submit claim for result or attendance of previous semester for diploma courses would be March 31 and last date for disbursement would be May 15, he said.

Last date to submit claims for other than diploma courses would be June 15 whereas last date for disbursement would be June 30.

He said that no claim applications would be entertained from the technical institutions after the cut- off date.

Eligible students belonging to Schedule Caste who were eligible as per the provisions of the scheme as implemented in the State must submit their claim application to their respective Institution at least 15 days before the cut-off date for the odd semesters, he added.

Further, with effect from 2012-13 academic session, YMCA University of Science and Technology Faridabad, Deenbandhu Chotu Ram University of Science and Technology Murthal, Guru Jhambheshwar University Hisar, Choudhry Devi Lal University Sirsa, Maharshi Dayanand University Rohtak, Kurukshetra University Kurukshetra and Bhagat Phool Singh Mahila Vishwavidyalaya Khanpur Kalan have been authorised to disburse their claims under Post Matric Scholarship scheme for all the AICTE notified technical courses run in their campus.

-- .Arun KhoteOn behalf ofDalits Media Watch Team(An initiative of "Peoples Media Advocacy & Resource Centre-PMARC") ...................................................................Peoples Media Advocacy & Resource Centre- PMARC has been initiated with the support from group of senior journalists, social activists, academics and intellectuals from Dalit and civil society to advocate and facilitate Dalits issues in the mainstream media. To create proper & adequate space with the Dalit perspective in the mainstream media national/ International on Dalit issues is primary objective of the PMARC.